TAPAUfest Youth Festival Raises RM87,000 On pitchIN

TAPAUfest, a youth festival organised by IkanPaosKolektif recently has managed to raise RM87,705 in crowdfunding money through pitchIN. The substantial amount is came from only 345 backers, which goes to show the support provided to the performing arts by regular Malaysians. It has also become the largest project funded through pitchIN in Southeast Asia.

pitchIN is a crowdfunding platform from Malaysia that aims to achieve the success found on Kickstarter. This is helped by the fact that Kickstarter does not allow anyone outside North America or the UK from starting projects on it.

TAPAUfest itself took place on 14 June 2014 at Quarry Park, Penang Botanic Garden. The indie music festival featured live performances by local music outfits as well as traditional performances, workshops, sales of street wear and craft stalls.

pitchIN co-founder Sam Shafie said, “the crowdfunding momentum in Malaysia is picking up very nicely. pitchIN has listed more crowdfunding projects this year than 2012 and 2013 combined. The number of successfully funded projects is also up sharply. Projects such as TAPAUfest have managed to reach new audiences and we believe that it is now only a matter of time before crowdfunding becomes second nature here. Malaysia is now at the forefront of the crowdfunding movement in South East Asia and we are confident that Malaysia will soon see the same levels of crowdfunding successes as that seen in the States and Europe,”.

TAPAUfest was also held in conjunction with the launch of TAPAUtv, a free indie online TV channel for Malaysian youth. However, the website still has a beta tag and isn’t fully live yet; there is no telling what kind of programming will appear on the channel (aside from the obvious indie music focus).

The amount of money raised by TAPAUfest is a positive sign for our local crowdfunding scene, and pitchIN may be a worthwhile visit for anyone looking into funding a new project.